SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – A former Apple employee has admitted in federal court to defrauding the electronics company out of more than $17 million during his employment.
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Dhirendra Prasad, 52, of Mountain House, California, pleaded guilty on Thursday to conspiracy to commit fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States. Prasad was employed by Apple from 2008 to 2018 as a buyer in the Global Services Supply Chain department.
In a written plea agreement, Prasad confessed to defrauding Apple out of more than $17 million by "taking kickbacks, inflating invoices, stealing parts and causing Apple to pay for items and services never received," the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California reported in a press release.
Prasad was accompanied by two co-conspirators in the fraud schemes; Robert Hansen and Don Baker, who each owned vendor companies that did business with Apple.
In 2013, Prasad shipped motherboards from Apple’s inventory to Baker’s company, CTrends. Baker then had the motherboards’ components harvested and Prasad had Apple purchase back the pieces, billing Apple for its own products. After the deal, Baker and Prasad split the proceeds, the press release revealed.
Around 2016, Prasad arranged to have electronics components shipped from Apple to Hansen's business, Quality Electronics Distributors, Inc. According to the attorney's office, Hansen intercepted the components, removed them from their packaging and shipped them back to Apple’s warehouse. Apple was again billed for its own products and Hansen and Prasad split the proceeds.
Hansen and Baker were previously charged in separate federal criminal cases and have admitted to their involvement in the schemes.
Prasad also admitted to engaging in tax fraud, which resulted in the IRS losing more than $1.8 million.
Prasad faces a maximum sentence of 20 years for one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud and wire fraud and a maximum of five years for conspiracy to defraud the United States. He will be sentenced in March.
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